BSc Mental Health & Wellbeing FT Top Up

This course includes the following core modules that all students complete:

Psychology of Mental Health and Wellbeing (20 Credits)– The Role of Psychology in the Mental Health System in depth. This will help students understand psychological aspects of mental health such as moods, emotions, feelings, attitudes, and behaviour. It will also offer an opportunity for them to understand the wide range of assessment, especially comprehensive psychological assessments that help identify and diagnose various mental health issues and illnesses and treatment options such as evidenced-based psychotherapies such as Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to provide ways to help people face fears, deal with anxiety, or add structure to their day if they are working to address depression or manage negative and challenging thoughts. This would help them understand support available to those struggling with mental health issues in order to improve an individuals’ quality of life in times of crisis, to prevent relapse, address issues with readmission rates, and maintaining care.

Contemporary Issues in Mental Health (20 Credits)– This module is specifically designed to provide with critical awareness of contemporary issues debated in the field of mental health. These include mental health practice and policy, issues of peer support and service user involvement, physical health care in mental health practice, gender and mental health, ethnicity and mental health, and patient safety.

Integrated Approaches to Dual Diagnosis (20 Credits)– When dealing with mental health disorders, we may encounter patients or service users diagnosed with concurrent disorders – these are the co-occurrence of mental health issues and substance use disorders. It is important that the students gain an understanding to identify this and suggest further care as needed using a person-centred approach. In this module, students will learn about commonly co-occurring conditions such as depression and alcohol abuse, signs and symptoms of illnesses, biological theories such as addiction pathways that help to address any underlying or resulting concurrent issues, the DSM criteria for diagnosis, assessment methods and management options available using an integrated approach i.e. medical, psychological and other non-medical interventions that helps to meet an individual’s needs based on the biopsychosocial and spiritual model.

Mental Health in Ageing Population (20 Credits) – The UK population is ageing rapidly, with the number of people aged 65 and over growing by nearly half in the past 30 years. Research shows that older people are more vulnerable to mental health problems, especially in times like this because of the pandemic. In this module, students will gain knowledge and understanding about common mental health conditions in older adults such as dementia and depression, the biological aspects of ageing and the anatomical and physiological changes occurring to the body, especially the nervous system, various assessment methods, recognising sign and symptoms for early diagnosis, treatment, and care provision in different settings such as home vs residential care homes, and the support available for this population.

Individual Research (40 Credits)– The students will be given an opportunity to conduct a research study in a topic they are interested in or based on their career aims or current work they do. They will be writing a dissertation of 10,000 words as a part of this module.

Occasional changes to modules and course content may take place. Students will be notified when applicable.

The primary way of delivering this programme is on campus:

Teaching includes a combination of lectures, small group seminars, workshops, debates, case studies, guest lectures and one to one discussion with your tutor.

Assessment methods vary to equip you with the invaluable transferrable skills required for employability within the sector. They include academic essays, individual and group presentations, academic posters, conference paper and a dissertation.

Additional one-to-one academic advocacy meetings with tutors will provide further support and guidance around teaching and assessments.

Applicants wishing to gain direct entry onto the top-up at level 6, must have gained at least 240 CATS (Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme) points through their previous studies at levels 4 and 5 in a relevant field such as Mental Health and Wellbeing, Health and Social Care, Hospital and Health Care and Counselling Studies. All applicants must have taken a level 5 research module to access the programme and be working or volunteering in the mental health arena Applicants will be considered on an individual basis if they have previous experience of working in the mental health arena and who are wishing to return

On completion of the BSc Mental health and Wellbeing graduates may progress to study one of the following Master’s:

–             MSc Dementia online: UoH-however, applicants must provide a CV including a current professional or voluntary role which requires regular direct contact with people with dementia

–             MA Social Work: UoH

–             MSc Mental Health, Wellbeing and Resilience: BGU Lincoln

During the BSc, universities will be invited to UCNL to talk to students about progression to Master’s programmes.